


Quiet Words

by Winterling42



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: F/M, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, nothing but fluff, post-Kaladesh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:10:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8272264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: Chandra has a great time at an aetherborn party, but it's time to go home and she's kind of collapsed on a couch. Gideon has to get her home, or at least to the safehouse where the Gatewatch has holed up after the arena. Honestly, this is just fluff. tooth-rotting fluff. Please enjoy.





	

“Chandra,” Gideon reached out to shake her shoulder lightly. “Chandra, it’s late. We should go.”

The pyromancer muttered something incomprehensible and rolled over to burrow deeper into the couch. Gideon sighed.

“I’ll pick you up. See if I don’t.”

Chandra said something that was probably, “I’ll pick _you_ up,” and curled in tighter.

“Chandra,” Gideon tugged on her shoulder, threads of tenderness cutting through his absent exasperation. It was only sometimes, when he wasn’t paying attention, that this gentleness opened up inside his chest, sharp and so strong it made his hands shake. She was still wearing her armor, the embellished pauldrons and gauntlets she’d gotten from Mrs. Pashiri’s friend. There was still work to be done on Kaladesh – plenty of it – but Chandra had insisted than an aetherborn’s party was nothing to be missed, and she’d been right.

So now she was too tired to walk back to the safehouse they’d been staying in. “Chandra,” he said again, and when nothing came to mind that would get her up he resorted to, “You’re not going to let Jace and Liliana steal the beds again, are you?”

“They can have ‘em. I’ll sleep here.”

Gideon sighed and scratched his head. For a pyromancer who prided herself on flexibility, Chandra must be one of the most stubborn people he knew, and that included himself. So, when there wasn’t away to undo the knot…

“Up. Come on.” He didn’t bother trying to get her to actually stand up — just scooped an arm under her shoulders and one under her knees and hauled. Even in her armor she barely weighed a thing, though her shoulder dug uncomfortably into his chest. Chandra only sighed and shifted a little so that her armor wasn’t jutting into her neck quite so much. Then she just laid her head against his chest and, for all intents and purposes, went back to sleep. Gideon frowned down at her, hoping his disapproval emanated strong enough to make an impression on the smug smile she was wearing, like this was what she’d wanted all along.

But Chandra only sighed in his arms and refused to open her eyes. “Thanks for coming,” she said, quietly but very clear. And Gideon didn’t think she was talking about the party.

“Of course.” He couldn’t help the way his hold tightened on her, just a little. The terrible gentleness was back, making his heart ache and beat too strongly. She’d be able to feel it, vibrating through his ribs against her cheek. “Always.”

They walked in silence for a little while. The streets of Giraphur were never dark, but they didn’t have the hurried, smoky feel of Ravnican nights. The dim blue light of an aether system lit his way for a few streets before vanishing under the cobblestones.The streets were only quiet in comparison to the noise and laughter of the party behind them.

“I figured it out,” Chandra said at last. The night-time sounds of Giraphur faded as they left populated neighborhoods behind, trading in the blue of aether for the sharp smell of verdigris and rot. The click-click of a construct’s feet sounded almost like hooves in the distance. 

“Figured what out?”

“The Gatewatch. I figured us out. In Baral’s trap. Forgot to tell you.”

Gideon, his mind caught up in remembering the number of turns to their hideout, paused at a crossroads and looked down at her. “What did you figure out?” he asked again, and she must have sensed real confusion in his voice because she opened one eye to look back at him.

“That we didn’t swear those oaths just to save the Multiverse.” The mention of Baral had cleared any sleepiness out of her voice, but she held very still and Gideon made no move to set her on her own two feet. “I mean, we did do that. We did save it. But it wasn’t _just_ that. We did it for each other, too. You and me and Jace and Nissa. And Liliana. You’re the people who don’t get left behind. You came after me when I tried. And I’d do the same for you, right? Right. I said it better to Nissa. It isn’t about being stronger, or just being part of something bigger. It’s being together, all of us. Being family.”

Her explanation didn’t stop so much as stutter to a halt, running out of fuel before she was really ready to stop.

Gideon stood still for a moment or two longer, thinking. Feeling Chandra’s words settle inside him, fit into places he’d thought empty. When she tugged a little at the front of his shirt, it was like being hit with a jolt of aether. He shook his head a little and started walking again, keeping one eye on the street and one on Chandra, who was watching him closely now.

“That’s just what I thought,” she said, cautiously. “Maybe the others don’t feel the same way. I know Lili doesn’t.”

“Maybe she doesn’t, but I do.” Gideon found himself smiling, something deeper than happiness bubbling up through his grin. “Chandra, that’s exactly – that’s what I hoped for. Not to start with, but later. Before we left for Innistrad. It was different to know that when I had to go, I wouldn’t be leaving everyone behind.”

“Yeah.” Chandra sighed and patted his chest, her eyes closing slowly. “That’s what I meant.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence, but Chandra was warm in his arms and where her hand was pressed against his shirt he could feel the outline of every one of her fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> join me on [tumblr!](http://hoard-smelter.tumblr.com/)


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